The early bird catches the worm (literally)

It was an efficient operation in North London today, as a keen team were not merely on time, they were ahead of time. Tom, returning from Week I (hurrah), had made his way straight to our task at Castlehaven to make a head start on the borders we were helping the team prep, ahead of a big rambling rose planting project.

He’d wasted no time in getting a hoeing tutorial from task owner Nichola, and was already an hour in to this great gardening task by the time the rest of us arrived.

Meanwhile, I had arrived at MIND’s Healthy Minds session early, or so I thought, only to find Elvis ready and waiting, backpack in tow. While we waited a few minutes for any latecomers, we sat in the sun and discussed the merits of being early arrivers.

After enjoying a lovely leisurely walk over to Castlehaven, we were met by Nichola and Tom, who proceeded to show us our work for the lunch hour, joining Tom hoeing, digging and weeding along the border of the large community park. It was tough work – I was lucky enough on be on digging, but Elvis and Tom made a fine job of mastering the hoe, getting a thoroughly good upper body workout in the process.

New Kids on the Rock

Before we knew it, it was time to transition from gardening to glutes and we made our way around to the other side of the park, where I’d spotted some boulders, the perfect multi-gym for our alfresco fitness session. We dived straight in with rock push ups, the perfect push up alternative for gardening-weary upper bodies, allowing for pecs to be worked rather than back muscles. The team worked harder still, and were exceptionally patient as I continually nagged them to, “Bend elbows, lower chest only, no sagging backs.” We moved rapidly on to some planks with leg lifts, seated leg drops for the abs, finishing with lunges and stretches. A fine fitness addition to the week or what.

Well done everyone.

We’ll be back for another GoodGym Healthy Minds session at Castlehaven next Weds, the 17th, meeting at Mind in Camden at 12 (the session runs until 1.30pm).